US military kills leader of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang in airstrike, Trump says

The US military has killed the leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in an airstrike, President Donald Trump announced on social media.

"At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero," Trump wrote.

Niño Guerrero, whose full name is Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, was the longtime leader of Tren de Aragua. The gang is one of the most notorious criminal groups in Latin America and has been a target of the Trump administration.

The president has accused the group of engaging in "irregular warfare" against the US and declared it a foreign terrorist organisation, placing it alongside the Islamic State.

Trump posted footage of what appears to be the airstrike, showing a green building with a nearby shed being blown up, debris flying into the air. Trump said the military action was "coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well".

In January, American forces seized then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from his compound in a dramatic overnight raid to face criminal charges in the New York. The US accused the former leader of collaborating with the gang in efforts against America.

Tren de Aragua was originally a prison gang that Niño Guerrero turned into a "transnational criminal organisation", according to the US state department, which had offered millions for information leading to his arrest.

Under Guerrero's leadership, the gang expanded into Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile and diversified from extorting migrants into sex-trafficking, contract killing and kidnapping.

Guerrero spent years in and out of prison. In 2012, he escaped by bribing a guard and was then rearrested in 2013.

Upon his return, he transformed the Tocorón Prison in the northern Venezuelan state of Aragua state into a leisure complex, complete with zoo, restaurants, nightclub, betting shop and swimming pool.

In September 2023, Maduro - then still president - sent 11,000 soldiers to storm and wrestle back control of the jail. Guerrero escaped - again.

In and out of prison, he was still able to expand the gang's influence, seizing control of gold mines in Bolivar state, drug corridors on the Caribbean coast, and clandestine border crossings between Venezuela and Colombia, according to the US state department.